Desolate
by NovaOfGeeks
Summary: Clara Oswald was left behind. "It's too dangerous for you to travel with me and Trenzalore proved that." Even though he said that, she never believed it. But after two years Clara made something of herself with Torchwood. But what happens when the Doctor returns? And with a new companion. (angsty whoufflé. Rated M for adult language and other things.)


**Hi guys! This is the first fanfic I'm posting up on this account and I'm really excited! I'm Nova and I really hope you guys enjoy this**

She felt cold. Even wrapped around her soft wool blanket she felt cold and alone. He left her. How could he just leave her? Clara Oswald squeezed her eyes shut again as more silent tears streamed down her face. It seemed as though that's all she ever did anymore. Cry over him. She didn't think she could take it anymore. Her heart felt like it was ripped in half. She knew that she loved him; there was no denying it at this point. Clara had managed to fall for the Universe's one and only Doctor and she hated every minute of it since he left her. In the black behind her eyelids she could remember the events of that day so clearly, so painfully.

"_Come on Doctor! Tell me where we're going!" She said with excitement. He finally said that she was healthy enough to go back into the world. Everything had stabilized in her body since the jump into his timestream._

_He only laughed at her eagerness, "I told you Clara, it's a surprise! Don't want to spoil it now do we?" She laughed right along with him, thinking that everything was okay now. Everything was exactly the way it was supposed to be. _

_ She watched as he twirled and danced around the console, pulling levers, flicking switches, and pressing buttons that she could only imagine what they could possibly do. Despite the fact that she and the old snogbox didn't get along she couldn't help but to think how magical and whimsical it was. _

_As the TARDIS shook Clara held onto the railing, so she wouldn't go flying to the other side of the room. She couldn't help be to notice how he wasn't laughing any more while she was still in a small fit of giggles. It was odd, like he wasn't telling her something._

"_Well duh Clara, he's keeping the location a surprise!" She thought in order to shake it off. But for some reason she knew it was much, much bigger than that. Once they landed she raced to the doors and swung them open and… The Maitland's. They were at the Maitland's home. She turned to him completely confused._

"_Doctor…? I don't understand. What are we doing here?" He didn't look at her. He only stared at his feet. She took a step closer to him, wondering if he was okay. As though he sensed this he put his hand up and shook his head. _

"_I'm sorry Clara. I'm so, so sorry. It's too dangerous for you to travel with me and Trenzalore proved that. I'm so sorry Clara. You were brilliant. You really were. There's no one like you in this entire universe and I'll never forget you. After all you're my impossible girl." Never once did he look up at her. He didn't want to see the tears prickling in her eyes. _

"_Doctor, please. Trenzalore made me stronger. I can take care of myself! Please! I don't want to leave you!" Her voice sounded desperate as she begged the ageless man. There was so much they had left to do, so much more they had left to see. And it wasn't only that, he was her best friend. He was funny and brilliant and absolutely mad. She couldn't imagine her life without him!_

"_I'm sorry Clara." And without another word he closed the TARDIS door. Immediately she banged on the door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Stubborn old cow. Her calls for him were frantic and soon they turned into sobs. Then what she feared the most happened, the familiar sound went off and the madman with his blue box disappeared right before her eyes. _

Clara had sat there for hours crying and waiting for him to comeback. Angie and Artie had found their nanny in her emotion wreak when they came home from school and they brought her inside, which took them a long time because of Clara's protests. Since that day she barely left her room, only letting herself out when she was desperately hungry or when she needed to use the w.c.

Her eyes flickered open and she looked around her dark lite bedroom. Apparently she was able to get a few hours of sleep, not that she enjoyed any of it. Sleep was another thing that she didn't seem to do lately. Frankly she was surprised that the Maitlands hadn't kicked her out yet. She was a completely useless and rubbish nanny at this point, they had every right to kick her out. And yet they didn't. She didn't let herself think about it too much before the Doctor popped back into her mind. The worse part of it all was that he never said goodbye.

It had been three months since that day and Clara was in the same emotional state she was the moment he left. She couldn't help but to feel lonely all the time even with the kids around. Clara just wasn't herself and she knew it. She found it hard to believe that she let one man ruin her life so much; then again he wasn't just one man to her. In the few months without him she realized just how much she cared about the madman. In fact she now knew that she was completely and utterly in love with him and there was no stopping that. She felt empty on the inside without him, without her chin boy. What was she supposed to do without him? She didn't know that was for sure.

Angie and Artie could only watch as their nanny became a shell of former herself. They knew that she couldn't get pass this stage of her life without a little help, but they soon realized the only thing that would fix her was the return of the Doctor. So being children of the twenty first century they decided to do what they do best, use the internet to their advantage.

The two little trouble-makers spent weeks looking up all the information they could on the Doctor, using every keyword from his name to "funny blue box". Eventually they finally found something, a website for alien hunting. After spending hours opening multiple pages they finally found a phone number. It would have been silly to do all that work and not to call the mysterious place. It wasn't hard to keep it a secret from Clara considering she barely noticed anything lately but just to be on the safe side they made sure that the door to Angie's room was locked before making the call.

The ringing seemed to go on for an eternity until there was finally an answer. "How can Torchwood Institute be of help to you today?" A Welsh accent spoke through the speaker.

"Angie, is that a machine or a lady?" Artie asked with a scrunched up nose of confusion.

Angie could only roll her eyes, "Don't ask stupid questions, clearly it's a woman otherwise she would've have given us options to choose from and we would've had to press numbers."

The woman on the phone repeated her question to the children obviously more annoyed than before.

"It's our nanny miss! Her alien boyfriend left her and we need to get him back so she can be happy again!" Artie rushed out before Angie had the chance to say something that was a little more reasonable.

"For now on let me do the talking." She snipped at her younger brother who only crossed his arms and glared at her.

"Look, kids that sounds really sweet but we are a serious institute. So whatever fantasies you are having about your nanny's ex-boyfriend you need to get over it. I hope she cheers up though."

The woman on the other end was just about to hang up when Angie blurted, "Wait! He's name's the Doctor! He's got this stupid blue box that travels throughout time and space! You've got to believe us!"

For a while there was silence and that made the kids nervous. Had they scared her off? They got their answer when they heard her speak once again, "Kids, I'm going to need your home address so I can speak with your nanny about that man, the Doctor." They weren't sure if they should trust the stranger on the phone with that sort of information, but considering it was for Clara and all their research lead to this they agreed and gave her their address.

It took no more than a day for an agent from Torchwood to appear at the Maitland's house, luckily for the kids their dad was out on a business trip the same day. They let the agent in, after checking their identification of course (They didn't want a phony to be entering their home). Next came the tricky part: getting Clara out of her room. It took them a while, they made up every excuse from a kitchen fire to a backed up toilet. But finally they just told her that someone who knew the Doctor was downstairs and that was when she got up faster than a heartbeat.

Clara raced down the stairs to see this supposed person. Could they have really known the Doctor? What if they were one of his enemies? Either way talking to them would most likely get her back in touch with her madman once again. She stopped at the living room and eyed the agent who was wearing a long, navy blue trench coat. She knew she looked like a mess, but frankly she didn't care. All she wanted was to know where the Doctor was so she could punch him a hundred times… Then snog him senseless.

"Do you know where the Doctor is?" Was the first thing that came out of her mouth and she watched as the agent frowned.

"I was hoping that you would have been able to answer that question for me. You are the Doctor's companion aren't you?" The man had an American accent and he seemed to have an almost coy trait about him. It didn't stop him from flirting though. "I haven't introduced myself, hi. Captain Jack Harkness."

The petite brunette stared at his extended and slowly made her way off the steps. She didn't take his hand as she spoke, "Clara Oswald. Do you know where the Doctor is?"

Jack kept his charming smile on as he slipped his hand back into his pocket. "Actually, I was hoping that you could tell me that."

His response made Clara frown and soon she turned back to the steps. "The Doctor hasn't been here for months. He's off doing god knows what."

Just as she was going to go back up the stairs Jack sighed, "Don't tell me. You fell for him too?" This made her stop mid step. She didn't move. Didn't turn back around. It was as though she was frozen in time. "You're not the first one to have fallen for him then leave or be left behind. As far as I know there are two others. You guys could start a club."

The former companion slowly turned to stare at the mysterious man standing in the foyer. "What do you want?" was all she could mutter.

"I have a proposal, if you'll consider it that is. You already know about aliens and the vastness of the universe. If I wanted to I could try to erase those memories from your mind, but then almost an entire year of your life would be gone. That's not very fair. Or, you could join me."

Clara stared at him, completely baffled. "Join you?"

With a nod Jack slowly wandered in the small hallway, looking at family pictures and such. It didn't escape him that Clara wasn't in most of them. "I work for an institute called Torchwood. Last of its kind. We operate up in Cardiff, protecting the earth from aliens. Things that people aren't ready to know about yet. You're smart. Well according to your m.o. that is. You went to uni, got a degree in teaching but then you just stop. Almost dropped off the map, until a little over half a year ago." Clara stayed quiet; listening to him even though she was pretty sure she knew how the story ended.

"See, Torchwood had been investigating a strange wifi incident. Our top notch tech expert noticed something a little off when hacking into the source. Someone else was doing it too, by the name of Oswin. Then before we knew it the problem was all fixed. After doing a lot of research, we found a security camera image of you and a rather funny looking man. Some more research and we saw you two coming out of a police box that seemed to come from nowhere. Figuring it was the Doctor, we just brushed you aside as a companion. Not really worth our time. But of course U.N.I.T. decided to keep tabs on you. You probably don't even remember meeting Kate Stewart. Which is fine of course. But then two kids end up calling our facility, which we are now re-wiping the web of any information about us, and here we are."

The young woman just stared at her feet, not really sure what to say next. But she figured asking a question would be in order. "So… What about it? It doesn't really have anything to do with me."

"Actually that entire speech had everything to do with you. So, Clara Oswald, how would you like to join Torchwood?"

Finally looking up at him she simply said, "No." And with that she started going back up the stairs.

"There's a pretty good chance that you'll see the Doctor again if you join." That made her freeze once more. "C'mon Clara. It won't be too bad. We can help each other out."

"And what do you need me for?" She didn't look at him; she just kept her head down. Her voice sounded so small.

"It just so happens that we need a new tech expert and you're more than qualified. So, what do you say? Feel like doing something with your life other than wallowing in yourself pity?"

Clara tossed the idea around in her head for a bit. It was true. She couldn't just stay curled up in bed for the rest of her life. It wasn't helping anyone, especially not herself. This was her chance to do some good again, to get her life back on track. She slowly turned towards Jack, chin finally raised up high as she spoke. "When do we start?"


End file.
